Remember how we discussed once upon a time that our family secret to marinated chicken is 76 year old ketchup?

It’s the secret to making your own barbecue sauce, too!

BBQ.

Bar-b-que.

I don’t know how to type that.

Anyway, after a year of togetherness, someone told me that Jay is the World’s Biggest Barbecue Sauce Fan.

This is unfortunate, because when it comes to the brown, sweet, saucy variety of sauce, I am decidedly NOT a fan.

That being said, I try my darndest to feed my bald beloved healthy and delicious food most days of his life.  If he loves something, I wanna know how to make it.

So, we created this homemade barbecue sauce!  It’s DELICIOUS, tangy, and a leeeetle big spicy.

FURTHERMORE, you can triple this recipe and put it in mason jars and give it as gifts anytime you find someone else who’s a fan of barbecue sauce.  We did that for Mother’s Day, and it was a hit!

Here’s what’s in the sauce:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 T worcestershire sauce
• 2 T paprika
• 2 t EACH garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder
• cayenne pepper, to taste (I started with 1/2 teaspoon and added more later)
• 2 drops liquid smoke
• 1/4 cup beef broth
• salt and pepper, to taste

Notice anything?  Fat free!  Now, I know this is a lot of ingredients, so if you don’t have one or two don’t freak out.  Make it with substitutions or just skip something – who cares?  It’ll be your own creation!

To make the sauce, heat a small pan over medium heat and add the ketchup, vinegar, sugar, and all the spices.

Stir them all together until they’re smooth, and let the sauce come to a bubble.

Taste the sauce!  It’s lovely, and you may want to add some more of any of the ingredients based on your preference.

Let the sauce bubble for 10-15 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and everything is combined and happy and perfect.

You can easily make this ahead and keep it for….as long as you kept the ketchup….it won’t go bad!

To serve this, I like to grill some chicken (whatever cut you’d like) with just salt and pepper and olive oil.   Halfway through the cooking, I take HALF the sauce and brush it over the chicken so it can get crispy and lovely.

Keep the other half of the sauce away from the grill!  We don’t want it to get contaminated with raw chicken.  Blegh.

 

The reason for the half sauce maneuver is that this allows each piece of chicken to have the flavor of the sauce without being too goopy – some people like that, some people don’t.  Everyone can goop up their own chicken at the table this way!

When the chicken is cooked, serve it with your favorite sides – roasted carrots are a great place to start since they’re so easy!

Serve the rest of the sauce at the table for adding more to the chicken, sides, your fork….whatever!

This is a great option if you’re in charge of meat this weekend – you could make the sauce TODAY and just grill and eat when you celebrate this weekend!